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Robert Pruneda is author of the Amazon Kindle best selling horror novel Devil's Nightmare and contemporary family sports drama series Victory Lane: The Chronicles. He lives in south Texas and has called the Lone Star State his home all of his life. Pruneda is also a classic car enthusiast and proud owner of a black 1981 Corvette that his friends call "The Bat Mobile." He is very active in social media and is an avid gamer who can often be found fighting side-by-side with his friends on his favorite first-person shooter . . . but he prefers survival horror.

"I read the first novel in this sequence and I was hooked like a dope feign on crack. I couldn't wait for the this sequel and I have to tell you, Robert 'Sharky' Pruneda immensely delivered." | Moniqua Sexton, Amazon Review

★★★★★

"Well heck, I didn't see that coming! I wanted to yell somebody wake up. Great book. I felt like I fell off a cliff when I turned the last page." | Donna, Amazon Review

★★★★★

"Very good follow up to the first one. Kept me on the edge of my seat." | Kathy, Amazon Review

★★★★★

"Pursuit of a Dream is a breath of fresh air. Readers will enjoy following Caleb's journey from a rambunctious young boy to a determined young man who refuses to allow his dreams to pass him by." | Sara Furlong Burr, author of Enigma Black

★★★★★

"If you want a compelling story about family, faith and dedication then you definitely want to take the time to read Pursuit of a Dream." | Wyatt McIntyre, author of The Last Dance

★★★★★

"In the age of zombies, horror, and thrillers vying for attention, Pursuit of a Dream seems out of favor with the current trend ... but, and this is a HUGE BUT, what isn't out of favor is excellent writing and storytelling, and this is what Mr. Pruneda provides." | Eden Baylee, author of Spring Into Summer

★★★★★

"If you enjoy a wonderful story that takes you through, highs, lows, faith and inspiration then you will find great pleasure in Pursuit of a Dream." | Dannie Hill, author of In Search of a Soul

★★★★★

"Readers will truly enjoy the transition of Caleb from young boy to a focused adult with NASCAR racing on his mind." | S.G. Lee, author of A Penny Saved, A Murder Earned

★★★★★

I truly enjoyed "Pursuit of a Dream" by Robert Pruneda. I cannot wait to see what lies around the next lap for the characters in this fine story and discover who will cross the finish line realizing a dream come true!" | Donna L. Sadd, author of Lucci the No Smoochie Poochie

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When Satan Lived in My Garage

In my previous post I wrote about my failed attempts of owning cats when I was a kid. Poor kitties in my care kept using up their nine lives in one quick sweep. Come to think of it, I owned cats during the time that my brother owned a 7 1/2 foot boa constrictor. No wonder some of the cats ran away! Our household apparently wasn’t cat friendly, so my parents decided that maybe we’d try dog ownership for a change. So, one day Mom brings home my first dog . . . a full grown Doberman Pinscher! One of her coworkers was giving away the dog, and naturally, Mom thought it would be nice to bring me home another pet (Before you ask, this wasn’t the same coworker that gave me Bugsy the Cat). Now visualize this for a moment: I was an 11-year-old kid who had never owned a dog before and instead of bringing home a cute little puppy, Mom brings home a “junkyard” dog that probably weighed more than I did and could probably eat me! At first, I was hesitant about petting the intimidating looking canine, but the dog was actually very friendly. I asked Mom what the dog’s name was. She told me that his name was Satan! I didn’t know how to react to that. Was the name cool? Or would owning a dog named Satan just give me nightmares? My older brother thought the name was awesome, of course.

Satan was a big dog, and we didn’t have a fenced yard. I didn’t want to keep him chained in the back yard, so my parents allowed me to keep him in the house while we were home. However, he would have to stay in the garage while I was at school and my parents were at work. So, that’s what we did. It took Satan a while to get adjusted to his new home and family, but before long, Satan and I were best buds. I enjoyed rough housing with Satan every day (something I couldn’t do with a cat without getting shredded like cheese). Every day after school, I’d open up the garage door to find Satan wagging his stubby tail and ready to play. After Satan took care of his natural duties in the yard (which I hated to clean up) after being cooped up in a garage all day, he would take me for a walk around the block. These walks got interesting at times, especially when Satan sniffed out a cat. Don’t worry, though, no cats were ever harmed… only I was after scrapping up my knees when Satan dragged me around the neighborhood.

Don’t open the door! Satan is in there!

Owning a Doberman named Satan turned out to be pretty cool. So, I naturally wanted to show off my new pet. I decided to start off with one of my friends who lived in the neighborhood… the rich kid that lived down the street. Michael was one of those somewhat snobby kids who liked to advertise “his” wealth, dressed all preppy, had all the coolest things, and thought he knew everything about anything. His parents both had a Mercedes with personalized license plates (LASTNAME “1” and LASTNAME “2”) and, of course, they had those cool new cell phones (remember “The Brick”?). Of course, for an 11-year-old kid, those were great reasons to be friends with Michael. Anyway, he and I both rode the school bus together, so after we got off the bus one day, I invited him over to play video games with my Sega Master System, which my Dad had recently bought me and was my prized possession. Michael, of course, owned the more popular Nintendo Entertainment System, which I personally thought was inferior to the Sega, except for Mario Bros., of course. This was a normal Friday afternoon of playing video games with friends, and we’d always go inside the house through the garage. Well, Michael didn’t know that I had a dog, so when he started reaching for the garage door handle, I warned, “No! Stop! Satan’s in there!” I wasn’t sure how Satan would react to seeing someone else opening the door instead of me.

Michael laughed and said something along the lines of, “Whatever! Satan’s not in your garage!” Michael then proceeded to pull the garage door up; he stopped immediately after hearing a growl from the other side. With fear in his eyes, Michael stopped laughing, pushed the garage door down, and asked me what the heck was in the garage.

Now I was laughing! Satan started barking, which didn’t help the situation. I ordered Satan to behave and told Michael that Satan was my new Doberman Pinscher. That didn’t appear to ease Michael’s fear. I suggested that I go inside the garage first, which Michael obviously agreed to. While Satan didn’t eat the rich snob from down the street, he didn’t particularly warm up to him either. If I remember correctly, Michael was a “cat person”.

Satan and I go our separate ways.

Owning Satan ended up being more of a chore that an 11-year-old kid could handle. Satan also started to show how he disapproved of living in the garage, too. Let’s just say he didn’t wait for me to get home from school to let him outside to take care of his business. While the garage accommodations worked fine for a while, poor Satan needed a yard with a fence to run, play, and poop. My parents were renting the house we lived in, and the landlord wouldn’t build a fence. Satan would have to stay in the garage during the day, and after a while, he started to dart out of the garage when I opened the door. After a couple of times chasing Satan around the neighborhood until he finally decided to come home by himself, I decided that I wasn’t cut out for dog ownership either, at least not yet. As much as I loved Satan, I had to let him go. It was just the right thing to do. So, Mom returned Satan back to his previous owner.

I had high hopes that owning a dog would end my childhood streak of bad pet ownership. But, alas, here I was again without a pet… well, sort of. My brother let me help him take care of his pet boa constrictor, Rosie. It just wasn’t the same, though. Maybe I’d take a crack at fish ownership! Oh, wait, I tried that. They all died. :-(

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I knew…I just KNEW…that Satan was a pet, with only reading the title. How awesome is that! When I was a kid, my cousin had a Doberman named Angie. He taught her stupid tricks (she would drop to the floor if someone pointed a two-fingered “gun” at her and said “bang”). Our cats have been *mostly* normal (except for their names). We can’t do the dog thing here because my youngest is petrified of dogs.

Now, our cat that lived to be 14 (we lost her to cancer in April), she was something else. Every vet she had put caution tags on her chart. People did not understand why anyone would want to own such a “devil cat.” Then they’d see her with us, and all of a sudden, she’s mild-mannered and meek and sweet. She spent a weekend in a veterinary hospital once, and had terrorized 99% of the staff within hours.

The problem? They were sweet to her. Which would work for a normal cat. But not Popoki (the literal Hawai’ian word for cat). To her, sweetness was indicative of weakness. If you were sweet, she walked all over you. The only vet tech who wasn’t scared of her was a burly guy who was bigger than my husband and didn’t put up with her guff. She respected him. Years later, when we found out she was diabetic, I warned the vet and her assistants to not be nice or sweet to her when I brought her in for the first day of insulin regulation. They didn’t believe me. The first day, anyway. The second day, they took me at my word, and things went much smoother.

Thanks for stopping by, auntiejl and sharing your experiences with that “the devil cat” of yours. :-) I love both cats and dogs, and as a matter of fact, I mostly had cats growing up. I found out later that I was allergic to them, which is a shame because I think cats (especially kittens) are great pets. Over the years I’ve become a “dog” person. I currently own a very old Mini-Pin (who is blind and diabetic), a lovable Beagle, and a very playful (and protective) Jack Russell Terrier mix. Both the Beagle and Jack Russell are rescues. I also had a German Shepherd recently, but sadly had to put him down due to a spinal disease that he had. Poor thing was crippled; it was so hard to take him to the vet to euthanize him.

Ah. Pets. When I was growing up we went through a fair number of dogs. They lasted a while, but would eventually succumb to fate or Darwinism. One, a beagle named Snoopy, was either suicidal or stupid. He lept from the back of the truck we were riding in, breaking all four legs and had to be put down, poor thing. Cats were more fortunate. We had one, a long-haired white fiend named Snowball who, the older he got, grew more bad tempered. I’d always enjoyed a cordial relationship with Snowball until one day he went berserk and decided my legs were a scratching post. After that, Snowball was a yard cat. Soon, he was completely feral, hunting and stalking small livestock. Eventually, he vanished into the woods behind the house and was never seen again. On that day, I breathed a little easier.

Great name for your Beagle! Poor thing. I would have been devastated. I used to have cats when I was growing up, but it turned out cats didn’t last very long in my household. The dogs have had better luck. My post 9 Lives? Not In My Household covers the topic.

LOL! Yeah, I’ve had some interesting pets haven’t I? Although, nowadays my selection of pets is pretty normal; I have three dogs and a bunch of fish. :-) It’s always a pleasure seeing you here, Linny, and I’m pleased to know that my blog posts keep you entertained!

I almost cried laughing. I love the idea of an eleven-year-old kid owning a huge doberman pinscher named Satan. Wish you could have kept him–having a dog like that as a teenager would have totally upped your badass rating. C’est la vie, it was smart of you to acknowledge you couldn’t keep him. I had to give away a beloved horse as a teenager for similar reasons.

I’m pleased to have sparked such an emotional response to the post. :-) I absolutely loved your comment about upping my badass rating! LOL! I wish I could have kept the dog, too. In hindsight, keeping the dog probably would have helped with the bullies. “Leave me alone or I’ll sick Satan on you!” Michael is lucky that he was one of my friends, too. :-)

I love horses, too! I’ve only ridden a horse once, but that one time was an amazing experience. Horses are such magnificent animals.